Big Blue Goose

Raquel and Van Campen Hellner go hunting the blue goose in the bayous of southern Louisiana in this late RKO Sportscope short.

We get a bit of a tour of the bayous, with a brief excursion to look at a Cajun's muskrat-trapping shack and his family, then a look at the swamp buggy the hunters and their guide travel in. When it gets around to actually shooting the birds, however, it seems impossible to miss; they are numerous and close-packed in flight.

I found the constant narration telling us exactly what we were seeing considerably overwritten. However, the visuals are interesting and anyone who has ever enjoyed a goose dinner should take some pleasure in this short.

It's RKO's Sportscope. Raquel Romero Heilner of New York and Cuba are headed to the bayou with her husband Van Campen Heilner to hunt the Blue Goose. First they board a speed boat. Along the way, they encounter a temporary Cajun hunting camp where the photogenic family is hunting furs. They next board a marsh buggy to travel the swamp.

I've never seen a marsh buggy looking like that. It seems to be little more than a tractor with special wheels. The decoys look unfinished. There are lots of dying birds falling out of the sky. Television doesn't show that nowadays. This is not for any animal lovers.

Big Blue Goose (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another entry in RKO's Sportscope series has Van Campen Heilner and his wife going into the bayous of Louisiana where they plan on hunting the title goose. Once there they show us how they set up a good hunting spot and we eventually see them shoot the geese. Naturally, this short isn't going to be shown at a PETA meeting but those who can except the fact that animals are killed on screen will probably find this thing mildly entertaining. I say mildly and that's probably being generous because these Sportscope shorts are always hit and miss and the good ones aren't nearly as good as some of the weakest films in other series. With that said, seeing how they set up their hunting grounds was pretty interesting as was seeing some of the shacks around the bayou. The narration was a tad bit too dry for my liking but there's enough here to make it worth viewing at least once. I think the dumbest thing happens during the first title on the screen as this one title shows RKO's name five times!!